June 13, 2025 • 49 mins
On this week's episode of The Rural Woman Podcast™, you'll meet Lauren Koster.
A city girl turned dairy farm life enthusiast, who never dreamed she'd find herself running a farm and homeschooling three kids. Lauren had never stepped foot on a dairy farm before meeting her now-husband, Eddy. Nearly 10 years later, they’re raising 60 cows, three kids, and a couple of pets, and finding humour in the chaos along the way.
For full show notes, including links mentioned in the show, head over to wildrosefarmer.com/224
. . .
THIS WEEK'S DISCUSSIONS:
[06:20] The Transition to Farming Life
[10:42] Building a New Dairy Facility
[15:06] Navigating Debt and Financial Challenges
[18:08] The Impact of Social Media on Farming
[25:02] Navigating Negative Feedback in Agriculture
[30:29] Finding Your Role as a Woman in Agriculture
[40:31] Staying Positive in Farming Challenges
[44:38] The Rewards of Raising Rural Kids
. . .
This week's episode is brought to you by Patreon
. . .
Let's get Social
Follow The Rural Woman Podcast on Social Media
Sign up to get email updates
Join our private Facebook group, The Rural Woman Podcast Community
Connect with Katelyn on Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest
. . .
Support the Show
Patreon | PayPal | Become a Show Sponsor
Leave a Review on Apple Podcasts | Take the Listener Survey
Screenshot this episode and share it on your socials!
Tag @TheRuralWomanPodcast + #TheRuralWomanPodcast
. . .
Meet the Team
Audio Editor | MixBär.
Patreon Executive Producers
Sarah R. | Happiness by The Acre
. . .
More with Katelyn
One on One Podcast Consulting | Learn More
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:40):
Hi, I'm Katelyn Duban and thisis the Rural Woman Podcast. I'm a
first generation farmer whomarried into agriculture. Born and
raised in a city, I was sounfamiliar with where my food came
from, but I was determined tofigure it out. Through my journey
into agriculture, I saw womenwho were strong but humble, often
(01:04):
taking a backseat. To me,these women were leaders who deserved
a seat at the table. I createdthe Rural Women Podcast to share
the voices of women in anindustry whose stories often went
untold. The ruralentrepreneurs who live and breathe
their work full of grit andpride. We come here to share our
(01:27):
stories, to be in communitywith each other, to be challenged
and inspired, but mostimportantly, family. To be celebrated
and to be heard. We may notall live farm, ranch or homestead
the same, but we are allconnected. We are rural women and
(01:47):
our stories are worthy ofbeing told. Hey everyone. Welcome
back to another episode of theRural Woman Podcast. Today you'll
meet Lauren Koster. Lauren isa dairy farmer, homeschooling mom
of three, and unintentionalfarm wife who found herself neck
(02:10):
deep in cows and chaos afterfalling in love with a dairy farmer
from southwestern Ontario.Lauren shares her candid journey
from never having set foot ona farm, to co managing a herd of
60 cows, raising kids withmuddy boots, and navigating the highs
and lows of rural life. Frombuilding a new dairy facility to
(02:32):
weathering the financialchallenges that come with it. Lauren
brings humor, honesty andheart to her story. Today we dig
into the unique role of womenin agriculture, the emotional weight
of navigating, onlinefeedback, and the magic of raising
your kids with dirt undertheir nails and the responsibility
in their hearts. Whether youare deep in the farming world or
(02:55):
just farm curious, thisconversation will remind you that
resilience and adaptabilityand sometimes a good sense of humor
can go a long way in thesometimes messy life in agriculture.
Without further ado, myfriends, let's get to this week's
episode with Lauren.
(03:19):
Lauren, welcome to the RealWoman podcast. How are you today?
Thanks, Katelyn. I am doingvery well, thank you.
I am so excited to dive intoyour story. I feel like there are
going to be quite a fewsimilarities between the two of us.
So it'll be just like twogirlfriends having a cup of coffee
today. So you make my job veryeasy. Awesome.
(03:41):
I'm looking forward to it.
For the listeners who areunfamiliar with you, Lauren, tell
us who you are, where you'refrom, and how you got your start
in agriculture.
So, my name is Lauren Koster.I'm from Southwestern Ontario, and
that is where we are currentlyfarming. My husband and I are dairy
farmers along with our threekids that are 4, 6, and 8. And I
(04:03):
always include them when I saythat we're dairy farmers, because
dairy farming truly is, atleast for us, a family affair. And
I was not born intoagriculture. I was raised close to
Toronto, but my husband and Iactually met in the Dominican on
holidays and we hit it off.And then now, 10 years later, we're
(04:29):
farming together. And, yeah,it's. It's a pretty fun life.
That's cool. A lot of timeswhen people tell me how they met
their husband and theirmillennials, ish. A lot of time people
are meeting them online, whichI very much met my husband on the
Internet. But meeting them onvacation I think is key because then,
(04:51):
you know, they value vacation.As a farmer, don't ask me how.
Many we've taken since itwould be kind of surprising on the
low end, right?
For sure. So growing up in thecity and near Toronto, obviously
a major urban center, I loveto ask women who didn't grow up this
(05:14):
way, what were some of yourfirst memories around food and where
food came from?
I find that question so hardto answer because I honestly don't
know. I just didn't thinkabout it. I didn't think about it
at all. Food was from thegrocery store. I remember my mom
planting a garden, and she'llsay now that she did it to educate
us, but all I remember is wehad this section in the back of our
(05:37):
yard and it was just full ofweeds all the time. I never actually
remember growing any sort offood to eat. I just remember that
square always being full ofweeds. So that would probably be
my mom's attempt at showing mewhere food came from. But I had never
even stepped foot on a dairyfarm, or come to think of it, any
farm that produced food otherthan probably apple picking or strawberry
(06:02):
picking before I met my now husband.
Yeah, that disconnect isdefinitely there for myself. Very
similar in not knowing a damnthing about where my food came from.
And regionally, like we arevery agriculture based in where I
am, there's farms everywhere,there's cows everywhere, but I didn't
(06:23):
know what people were doingwith those cows or how they ended
up at the grocery store. Sovery similar. But it is a very good
life lesson that your mom didteach you that weeds do grow when
you try and grow food. So allweeds, you know, eventually flower,
and some people value them asa flower that way. But most people
(06:45):
in production agriculture do not.
So I have learned that.
So what was your firstimpression when you visited your
husband's dairy farm? And howdid that kind of start to create
that perspective of farmingfor you?
My goodness. It was. It'sagain, hard to remember what I first
(07:06):
thought, but I just. Iremember the pungent odors of the
dairy farm and just thinking.My husband is also one of six siblings,
and I remember when I met himon holiday, like, I knew one family
that had five kids, and I justthought, like, oh, people still do
that. People still have thatmany kids. And when I, when he was
(07:28):
a farmer, like, I was justlearning all kinds of new things.
But when I stepped into thatdairy barn, I just, I was odd, in
awe of the facility. And thatwas a. A Thai stall burn built in
the 70s. But I rememberthinking it was extremely clean and
just being amazed by, youknow, seeing where our milk comes
(07:52):
from.
Right. The smell is alwayswhat's going to get anyone first.
Even, you know, when we. Inour area, it's called Feedlot Alley.
Like, there are a lot of cows.There are more cows in our area than
there are people. And thesmell always gets the city people
as soon as they come. I don'tsmell it anymore. The thing that
(08:14):
I smell outside is silage morethan I do manure.
That can also have a bad smell.
Exactly. I'm not a. It's notthe greatest smell for me, if I'm
being honest, but, yeah, depending.
On what stage of thefermentation process it is in.
Yeah, exactly. So youobviously fell in love with a farmer
(08:35):
and then got married and tellus what that journey was like in
really transitioning your lifeonto being on a farm.
Sure. So when I met myhusband, he actually wasn't a farmer.
He worked for a constructioncompany. And that was mainly because
he wanted to get somedifferent experiences to make sure
(08:57):
that farming is what he wantedto do. Also, I mentioned he's one
of six kids, so he has. He hadthree brothers who were also involved
on the farm. So at that point,it was just finding room for everybody
and finding a spot foreverybody. And then again, if that's
not what he really wanted todo, then that would eliminate finding
a spot. But obviously that iswhat he decided to do. And about
(09:22):
six months into our marriage,they restructured the family farm,
and my husband then startedworking there. So I remember when
we were dating and he kind ofsaid, or maybe we were engaged at
this point, and he kind ofsaid, so, like, I do want a dairy
farm, kind of. Are you in orare you out? But I really at that
point still I would help himmilk on weekends when he was working
(09:47):
on his family farm and Iwould, you know, help feed the feed
that they were not on a, anyfancy feeding system. So I would
be giving scoops of grain tothe different cows. But I didn't
really know what the wholelifestyle of dairy farming was. So
when he kind of gave me thatare you in or are you out? I was
like, yeah, I'm in. Likeyou've got me. And I guess in life
(10:08):
you never truly know whatyou're in for, but. So he worked
with his brother on theirfamily farm for, if I'm doing the
math right here, about sixyears before we branched out and
split up in a good way on ourown. So he would go at 4:30 in the
(10:29):
morning off to work and thenhe would come home for a fairly brief
lunch, especially in thesummer. In the winter it would be
longer, and then go back tohis family farm, which was 10 minutes
away, and then come homearound 7 or 8pm so at that time too,
I also found a job. I hadmoved to the area, obviously I mentioned
(10:51):
that I was from. I lived anhour and a half from where my husband
is. His family is where ourfirm is now. And I was just out of
school, so I was deciding do Iget a job? And I went to school for
social work. So do I go branchout into the cities and get a job
there? But I decided to get ajob closer to home at a caf research
(11:14):
facility because I thoughtthat would ultimately be a good investment
for my future to figure outhow to manage calves. So I worked
there and that turned intomany years I worked there. So that
was kind of my actual entrypoint into agriculture, was working
at this calf facility while myhusband was farming separately on
their family dairy farm. Thenthree kids later, I stopped working
(11:37):
at the calf research facilityand we started preparing for building
our own barn to have where wewere living. We moved on to one of
the family farms and that iswhere we built our current facility.
And that was two and a halfyears ago now. So we've been in our
new robotic milking barn fortwo and a half years.
(11:59):
Very cool. And I love what yousaid about kind of the lifestyle
piece and your husband sayinglike, are you in or are you out?
And I think that is somethingthat I feel a responsibility to,
as a city girl who marriedinto farming, have to talk about
(12:23):
because we don't understandwhat this lifestyle entails in full.
Right. Like helping out onWeekends or going for a romantic
combine ride every harvest.Right. Like those are the nice things
and those are the things thatdo happen. But there's so many pieces
behind the scenes that happen.So really explaining the full lifestyle
(12:45):
of the ups and the downs whenit comes to farming, I feel like
I have a responsibility totalk about those things. What are
your thoughts on that?
Do you mean a responsibilityto talk about them to women?
That would be gettinginvolved, I think getting involved.
And also women who have beenborn and raised in this industry
(13:06):
that might look at us like,why is this so hard for them to understand?
Right. Yes. So I, I woulddefinitely agree. And I also think
that if you really did layeverything out, if you laid out all
the points about, well, youcan't really RSVP for an event because
you don't know what theweather is going to be like. You
can say, you can respond to,to a wedding, but will to actually
(13:30):
come, you won't know until theday of. And just little things like
that for us. Robot calls inthe middle of the night. If I were
to sit down with a woman whowas in my situation 10 years ago
where whose husband said, areyou in or are you out? And laid all
those things out for her, Idon't know personally if I would
have said, if I would havechanged my answer. Because you can
(13:53):
spell all it out, but untilyou're living it, you really don't
know what it's actually like.
Yep.
But in terms of women who havebeen raised in agriculture, I think
that's amazing that they havehad these things ingrained into them
and it's part of theirlifestyle already. I've met a lot
(14:14):
of women who say that theywill never marry a dairy farmer or
never wanted to marry a dairyfarmer because they've grown up living
it. I've also met a lot ofpeople who have said that and are
now married to dairy farmers.So it's. I think it's really you,
you like the lifestyle or youdon't. And you either the all the
(14:36):
positives that you mentionedoutweigh the negatives or you just
get carried along the streamand it is what it is.
The cows need to be milked.Right. Like at the end of the day,
that's what needs to happen.So yeah, I just, I always find it
really interesting to havethese conversations and you know,
looking back, you know, yourhindsight is 2020 of the good, bad
(14:59):
and otherwise. And I think thething that I value the most about
people who grew up this way istheir ability to adapt to ever changing
circumstances. Farmers arereally obviously resilient people
and can adapt to mostsituations without a lot of hesitation.
(15:20):
They kind of just jump in withtheir boots on. And that's equality
that I've developed over theyears, but it's definitely been harder
for me.
Yes, I agree with that,wholeheartedly. Took the, the word
right out of my mouth therewith resiliency would definitely
be one of the main words Iwould use to describe farmers. Right,
yeah, they can, their mindscan work pretty uniquely.
(15:44):
Yes, absolutely. So talk to usabout, you know, the journey of building
a new facility. That is anundertaking that many have probably
thought about doing, butactually pulling the plug in doing
it, that's amazing. So take usthrough that journey in building
(16:06):
your own dairy operation andwhat that's looked like for you and
your family.
Sure. So it's a pretty complexstory. I'll try to keep it, you know,
brief. But we were actually onDairy Farmers of Ontario. I'm not
sure about different provincesin Canada and then obviously it's
really different in theStates, but Dairy Farmers of Ontario
has a program and it's changednow since we've utilized it, but
(16:27):
it's called the New Producerprogram. So it gives new producers
or people that want to getinto farming a chance to try or not
try, but get involved. And wewere on that wait list and I'm, I
don't remember the exactnumbers, but when we signed up for
it, right when my husbandEddie went back home and started
working on the, the home farm.And at that time it was a ten year
(16:50):
wait list. And then I think intotal we were on it for about six
years before we received thequota. And quota is rights to sell
milk. So we had a six yeartimeframe which it worked out perfectly
for timing for when we wereable to build a barn. Because in
the reason it went from 10years to 6 years is some people will
(17:13):
drop out. Sometimes timingdoesn't line up. Sometimes DFO is
ready to give the quota, butthe people don't have a barn built
or different variables likethat. So our time was approaching
and we started doing researchinto building a barn. My husband
doesn't really love cows, so alot of people that really love cows
(17:34):
and milking will say, I will.I would never go with milking robots
because I just love milkingthe cows so much. So that was definitely
a point that he was not sosure about at first. But he's also
a big numbers guy and when hewas deciding what type of barn he
wanted to build. He did a lotof research on cost of building.
(17:58):
I don't think you can build atie stall burn, which is when the
cows are tied up in individualstalls and get milked individually
installed. I don't thinkyou're able to build that type of
barn anymore. So it wasessentially a parlor where cows get
milked in groups or a robotbarn for us. And when you take the
cost of square footage thatyou need to build a parlor barn,
(18:21):
because the parlor takes upmore space than the robots. And then
you also need a holding areato put all the cows in before they
get milked, Whether it's allyour cows or groups of cows, you
need more square footage. Sowhen that was compared with the cost
of robots in the less squarefootage of the actual build, it made
sense to go with robots. Andthere are other reasons too, that
we chose robots. Like, wereally had a desire to be able to
(18:44):
do it kind of all byourselves, at least just start up.
So robots eliminate the needto hire labor to help with the milking.
And also, of course, theflexibility that robots offer in
just. It's. It's kind of theway of the future. And robots have
been out for many years now,so we feel the kinks have been worked
out and it was a good time tojump in. So building the barn was
(19:08):
a lot of fun for me. As a citygirl, One thing that I feel still
very overwhelmed with is allof the mass amounts of debt that
comes from farming. I wasraised, my dad was a salesman, so
I learned that you make money,you have some that you save, some
(19:29):
that you give, some that youspend, but farming is completely
different. So that's somethingI find very overwhelming and still
am, you know, struggling withthat on a basis as a whole. But it's
rewarding in so many ways, andit's really cool to have been able
to design a barn and buildexactly what we want. And we really
(19:54):
wouldn't change much about it.
I, as a person who has nevermilked a cow and has also never been
in a dairy barn, whenever Ihear producers talk about robots
milking cows, like, it always,like, blows my mind that they can
just go in and literally havenot much human contact in the whole
(20:16):
endeavor. And we get milk andcheese and all of the good stuff
that comes from that. So onething that you did mention was the
debt aspect of it. And when Ihear robots, I think of debt because
I don't think robots are veryinexpensive. For the new producer
(20:36):
program, is there mentorshiparound these pieces for you like
to kind of get you startedwith the back end of. Of the operation
as well.
I don't believe so. I don'tthink that we had anything like that.
No. I think it's justbasically like, they don't give you
the quota. You have to pay forit, but otherwise, if they don't,
(20:57):
if they don't set it aside fornew producers, then there's not really
a chance for people to getinto dairy because the amount of
quota that's available to buyeach month is very minimal. Just
I won't get into thelogistics, but you're not gonna buy,
you know, 0.1 kilograms ofquota. You can't even milk one cow.
(21:20):
So that's kind of how itworks. But they didn't. I don't believe
there's any sort of mentorship.
It's interesting to me, right,because when we're thinking about
quota and when we're thinkingabout getting into the dairy industry,
I would assume that mostpeople who are on this wait list
are coming from other dairyoperations or at least have worked
(21:41):
on a dairy operation priorversus, you know, some person from
the city just thinking, like,wouldn't it be fun to milk cows twice
a day every day?
Yes, I would assume so aswell. I get some messages on social
media like, how do I start upa dairy farm? And I always just respond
(22:02):
and say, well, have you, like,maybe start working on a dairy farm
if they don't already? It'sclear that they don't. And just to
get a feel for what itactually is, like, before you jump.
Absolutely. And I like thatyou brought up the social media piece
because something that youhave done and that you have worked
on is showcasing your farm foreveryone to see on social media.
(22:27):
So talk to me about how youstarted and why you started and what
you've been doing.
Okay, so the why I started isbecause when we were started up in
our. In our new barn and cowswere milking and things were going
better, I. I remember taking avideo of a little video tour and
(22:47):
sending it to a friend of mineout in Northern Ontario. And he had
kind of said, oh, you shouldstart a YouTube channel. Like, that
was a really good tour. Andthen Eddie. Eddie likes watching
farmers on YouTube. And whenhe's talking to other guys about
YouTube channels, then theywould always say, you should start
a YouTube channel. But myhusband Eddie, like, he knows less
(23:09):
than. It's kind of funnybecause we're robot farmers, but
when it comes to technology,like, the other day he asked me how
to Send an E transfer. So he,he doesn't, he would not know how
to edit a YouTube video. Butso that was kind of what sparked
the idea. And then also,having not been from a farm, whenever
my friends or family wouldcome to check it out, all of them
(23:30):
would just say like, I had noidea farming was like this. Whether
people think cows are stillmilked by hand or they just don't
think about it, or some peoplethink that barns are dark and dirty
and grungy and our barn is anew build. So it's high ceilings,
it's bright, it's airy,there's optimal ventilation. In the
(23:50):
summertime, the barn feelsnicer to be in than our un air conditioned
house. So just a combinationof that, that little spark. And then
friends of mine and familysaying they had no idea what dairy
farming was like. I thought,well, why don't we show people? However,
I learned fairly quickly I wasnot very active on social media personally
(24:14):
prior to that and I learnedvery quickly that social media, whether
it's YouTube, Instagram,Facebook, quickly learns what you
like and only shows you whatyou like. So like I said, I wasn't
active before and then once Istarted the farming channel, all
of a sudden all, all of thoseplatforms, all they would show me
is farming content. So Ilearned fairly quickly that at least
(24:39):
starting small, I'm actuallynot really reaching very many people
that are not, that are notinvolved in farming and don't have
much farming background. But Ihaven't let that discourage me yet.
And I'm seeing it as a way toconnect with other farmers and encourage
other farmers. And some peoplewill reach out to me and say like,
(25:01):
oh, I saw you do somethingthis way and I changed the way I
do it. It's way moreproductive. Or do you have tips on
this? Because I saw the waythat you have your tabs organized
and I really like how you dothat. Can you send me a picture of
your caf or I want to copy itand things like that. So that's very
motivational to provideencouragement to others involved
(25:23):
in it.
I think that it's sointeresting, it's completely valid,
the algorithms algorithm andyou get to see what you want to see
nine times out of ten and verymuch the same, like if you are interested
in dairy farming, you're goingto see dairy farmers. If you are
interested in growing a notill garden, you are going to get
(25:46):
all of those things. And Ithink for me anyways, like I look
at what I do and the audiencethat I hope to Reach and us sharing
our stories for me is a wayfor us us women in agriculture and
rural living to connect versustrying to convince somebody that
they should live rurally orthey should drink milk from a cow
(26:11):
versus an alternative becauseof whatever they thought of what
dairy farming looked like. I'mcurious if you have experienced maybe
any negative pushback fromfolks who maybe are from outside
of the egg industry and areagainst dairy in any way.
(26:33):
Yes, I definitely have andit's been a learning experience for
me fairly early on and I'veonly been doing this for less than
two years, but early on I wasposting kind of anything and in the
the debate back and forth onwhether to include my kids in on
social media or not is alwaysin my mind. But I've currently taken
(26:58):
the route of including them.Not all the time, but just they're
very much a part of my familyand truthfully they would be hurt
if I didn't include them. Itry to do it in a semi what I think
of as a safe way, but you canprobably see where this is going.
I posted a video of my son. Hehad said I wish we weren't farmers.
(27:19):
And so that's kind of how Ititled the video. And then he comes
out and I video him helping mefeed the calves. And then I say at
the end I could have just lethim say yeah, wallow in self pity,
but that wouldn't have let megive the opportunity for him to help
and say you're a really goodfarmer, bud. And that particular
(27:42):
video, all kinds of negativecomments about it. How I'm abusing
my children and abusing myanimals because we have our calves
and calf touches which youcan't even. There's no point in even
saying why you do things theway you do to comments like that.
They don't. They're not goingto listen. There's always just going
(28:03):
to be something that they'regoing to say back. But I learned
that if I'm going to includemy kids, I need to be very intentional
about how I do it becausethat's ultimately hurtful for my
kids when they grow up. And ifthey see that video, those comments,
especially in let's say teenyears, like that's very influential
for them. So I have hadpushback like that or different.
(28:25):
I'm trying to think ofsomething else. But one time, oh
again with my son, one time hewasn't feeling that good and I just
mean a sniffle like he wastired and I was pulling him around
in our calf feeding wagon andhe was bundled up in his snowsuit.
But like, so much backlashabout that, about how I should be
treating my child when he'ssick instead of doing things and
(28:48):
just accusing me of being anabusive parent and all these things.
And I am a very sensitiveperson, but surprisingly, am able
to let those things just flyover my head because you don't know
who's behind the comments. Andsometimes I just want to be like,
well, I don't go and tearapart what you do for a living. But
(29:09):
it is my choice to show onsocial media what we do, and it's
their choice how they take it.And I've connected with some other
people on social media. One.One thing that stood out to me when
talking about negativecomments was a wife of a man who
has a YouTube channel saidthat when they get negative comments,
they bless the person and thenmove on. And I thought, oh, that's
(29:32):
a really nice way to handle that.
And while you were sayingthis, like, I. I'm no stranger to
a negative comment or two inmy time, but honestly, when I think
of it and when I think of thetypes of videos, you know, that you
are posting and just sharingwhat you do in your everyday life,
as a person who grew up in thecity and if I didn't know anything
(29:55):
about agriculture, I couldpotentially look at these videos
that way. Right? Because Idon't understand. I don't understand
the back part of it. And ifthey were willing to be open to learn,
they would and look and seewhy you do the things the way you
do. Right. And if they're notinterested, they're not interested.
Right. And that's. That'sokay. I'm not interested in probably
(30:16):
95% of their careers or whythey do what they do. Right. But
it is what it is. Andhonestly, I think the advocacy part
and the education piece is soimportant in our industry. And for
the folks who are willing toput their hand up saying, like, I
am tribute to showing you whatwe do on our farm to help share our
(30:39):
stories, I. I commend you fordoing that and doing it on YouTube.
It is. I started a podcast soI didn't have to be on a camera or
in public, and that reallybackfired on me six years later.
But, like, I just. I want tocommend you for sharing your story
and sharing what your familydoes on your operation, because it
(31:01):
is hard and it's unfortunatethat we have to have as thick of
skin as we do, because we'restill human and our feelings can
still get hurt. But puttingyour hand up and saying, like, I
will show you what we do inorder to really progress our industry.
I have a lot of respect forthat. So thank you for doing it.
(31:21):
Thank you.
(32:10):
I want to talk about a piecethat we kind of chatted about before
we hit record, and that was awoman in agriculture and finding
really what your place andyour role is on individual operations
and really in the industry asa whole. Talk to me about the progression
of you really becoming a partof your operation with your family
(32:33):
and with your kiddos andincluding them in that.
Right. So, as I said, my kidswere already alive when we started
farming on our own. And Ididn't get very involved with the
family farm when my husbandwas working there. Just thought it
was best not to. But before wehad kids and as we were kind of,
you know, planning life andhow things would go, the dream was,
(32:55):
you know, at that point, tobecome a dairy farming team. And
I had all these ideas of whatthat would look like and how involved
I would be and what I would beable to do. And then I had kids,
and that all changed. Andalso, again, this was kind of a more
fantasy because we weren'tactually living yet. I didn't actually
get to practice those dreamsbefore having kids. And then the
(33:17):
kids kind of became the dream.But it definitely looks different
than even I would like it tosome days. But it's very rewarding,
I think, to be able to beinvolved with my husband. And I have
certain things I manage on thefarm. I manage our calf program.
That doesn't mean I feed thecalves. Every single calf feeding.
(33:40):
My husband also does some ofthat too. But I do it enough that
I'm able to manage it. I knowhow to do all of the main barn chores.
I, last summer learned how todrive a tractor. I did it once because
my husband just says I wouldbe way too slow. I may as well just
do the barn tours so that hecan be out in the fields, the tractor
(34:01):
work, because that's the phasewe're in right now. And if I did
the tractor work, I would havethree kids in the cab with me and
probably not be able to focusvery well on what I'm doing. So it
just works better for him todo the field work and me to be in
the barn with the cows and thekids. Some days I wish I was involved
more. Some days I wish that Icould, you know, be in the skid steer
helping clean out barns. Andthat would give my husband opportunities
(34:23):
to do other things. But I alsohomeschool our three kids, so I just
don't have enough time in aday to do everything. And I just
think our kids are young now.And then when they are grown, then
maybe it will be my time to domore in the barn and to help out
with more. I know it's a barn,but I still wish our barn could be
cleaner. The cows will poopeverywhere. So I wish I could be
(34:47):
more involved with keepingthings cleaner and with the cows
and things like that. But thatday may come. And each. I've spoken
to many different femalefarmers, or I like to call women
that are involved in farmfemale farmers rather than farm wives,
(35:07):
because I just think thattitle is. Conveys more responsibility,
which is more of a reflectionof what their life probably actually
is. So female farmers, I'vetalked to a lot of different female
farmers and we all havedifferent ways of doing things. And
some farms are generationalfarms where there's brothers and
(35:28):
sisters and moms and dadsthere and sometimes aunts and uncles
helping in there to help withthe kids and help with the farm work.
And everybody either has theirown individual roles or they share
roles. And some farms are morelike ours, where it's just us and
I don't have family close byto take care of, kids to be out on
(35:48):
the farm, which I'm notcomplaining, that's totally fine.
That's the way we do it and itworks. And farming, like I said for
us as a family affair, we'reoften all out there together. And
I love that for our kids. Notevery day, because I don't want to
paint a perfect picture foryou. There's definitely a lot of
tears and throwing hands upand all those things that go along
(36:11):
with it. But I'm kind oflosing my train of thought here with
your initial question.
Thank you for sharing all ofthat. And I think we chatted about
just the different phases oflife. And you mentioned it too, before
having kids, you have thefantasy of husband and wife team.
And we're going to bring allof these kids along and they're gonna,
(36:32):
you know, eventually run askid steer themselves and like all
of these things, but it takesa lot of work to get there. And I
actually had a conversationwith a friend now. I will. I will
say she's my friend now. I'mactually more friends with her mom.
But we were chatting and shehad mentioned something to me about
(36:53):
how she can't wait until herkids are older so she can be a real
farmer. And I was like, whatdo you mean, a real farmer? And she's
like, well, you know, when Irun the combine, I have three kids
in here and all of thesethings. I'm like, I'm sorry. I think
that makes you more of a realfarmer because you can run, right?
This piece of equipment withchildren crawling all over you and
(37:13):
still bring a crop in. So,like, to me, you're the ultimate
real farmer, Right?
Yeah. That's amazing. I lookat. I look at women. Sorry, I look
at women driving tractors withkids in the cab and combines and
all that. And, like, to me,that's amazing. I cannot imagine
that.
Right. And it's just all like,it's all relative. Right. And I think
(37:36):
I love social media forbringing us all together, but I think
specifically as women,sometimes we can be really mean to
each other, but more or lesswe're mean to ourselves because we
see people doing those thingsand we think, well, I could never
do that. Or I've tried to dothis, and it's, you know, it doesn't
work for me. That's fine,that's fair. That's valid. My nephew,
(38:00):
at one point, I was operatingthe grain cart and I told him, don't
press any buttons. And he did.And it was like, what do I do? Right?
So, like, there's pros andcons to all of these things. But
the point I want to make hereis, I think as women in agriculture,
we. We have to find our valuein which phase we're in, because
(38:24):
all of our phases of whetherthat's, you know, as a new young
farmer, a newlywed, or if youare having children or you're in
your children phase, if youare in your public speaking podcast
phase, and you don't have timeto do all of the things that you
wish you could do, that'sokay. You still have value to your
(38:46):
operation. Right? And I thinkwe forget that really easily. And
then we can feel like we'renot doing enough, when in reality,
we're right alongside ourpartners. We are helping the operation
in the way that we can, in theway that we know how. And I think
when we know better, we dobetter. And when we get to experience
(39:08):
things, I think that's whenwe're going to learn to see where
we fit in our operations andto see where we fit in, you know,
agriculture as a whole.
Yeah, you're totally right.You're totally right. My husband
and I say remind each otherall the time that you can do everything,
but you can't do everythingwell. And he's constantly reminding
(39:28):
me of, which is so nice ofhim, but of the value I bring to
the farm. Even if I haven'tstepped foot in the barn for a week,
he'll remind me of all thethings that I'm doing to keep him
afloat and to keep the familyafloat in. And that's really helpful
for me when I get in my headand I see, you know, like you said,
all the other people doingeverything else and I'm doing nothing.
(39:48):
Like that's, you know, my mind.
Right.
But yeah, sometimes thereisn't a definition for your role
in the farm and you just getthrough it and you're just, you just
show up and you do it or maybeyou're not showing up and that's
your current role. Like yousaid, there's different phases for
everything and it's going tolook different. You can't necessarily
(40:09):
have that all mapped outbecause you, you just don't know,
right?
You don't know until ithappens. And like we had said before,
I can picture a really goodfantasy of what I think it should
look like. And in reality itcan be the exact opposite of what
I've laid out. So I want toask you, as you know, a first generation
(40:33):
farmer yourself, what messagesdo you have for young Lauren? If
you could go back and tellyoung Lauren one thing about entering
or considering entering adifferent role in agriculture or
role in general inagriculture, what words of encouragement
(40:53):
do you have?
So we didn't plan this, but Ithink the first thing that came to
my mind is to stay positive.Because with farming it's so easy
to get wrapped up in and allthe things that have gone wrong and
all the things that you'remissing out on and all the things
that, you know, grass isgreener on the other side. But if
you stay positive, and I wouldhave told myself back then to keep
(41:16):
a gratitude journal and everyday just write one thing that I was
grateful for and to be able tolook back on that and see all the
blessings that have happenedover the years. That is what I would
tell a young version ofmyself. And that is what I have to
keep reminding myself becauseit's not always easy and that doesn't
always come first nature. Andit just realistically, like it's
(41:38):
not always positive. So likenothing is. But you have to work
to remember the good thingsabout what you're doing day to day.
And I love what you said, it'sreally easy to find the negative,
especially when there are somany things outside of your control.
But if you could focus on whatis in your control. And gratitude
(42:00):
is something that we all haveor that we should all have. Probably
pretty easy to find at leastone good thing that happened to you
in a day, even if you had areally, really bad day.
I've. I've been able to, inthe days I've been practicing that.
There's usually when you sitdown and think of it, there's quite
(42:22):
a few things that you canactually write down.
Yeah, for sure. You hadmentioned, you know, having a partner
who really shares with you thevalue that you bring to your operation,
which I have to tell you, is a treasure.
Yeah.
In farming partnerships and inpartnerships in general, I think
that's a really easy thing toforget. But I want to turn that back
(42:46):
on you. What are you mostproud of? Of the things that you
do for your farm and the valuethat you bring to the farm.
Okay, wow. That's anotherpoint I didn't. I'm not prepared
for, but I guess I'm proud ofshowing my kids that even when I
don't want to do something,I'm showing up and doing it. Any
mother can really portray thatto their kids. You don't have to
(43:08):
be a farmer, but that'sprobably one thing I take pride in,
is showing them theresponsibility of taking care of
animals. And I'm reallygrateful that I had the experience
at that calf research facilityto develop great protocols for our
farm. And it's really fun tobe able to work with individual calves
(43:31):
that are ours instead oftreating all calves as equals. Because
when you're doing research,that's what needs to be done. But
it's really. I really enjoybeing able to. If one. If one calf
is growing slower, you cankeep them on milk longer. If one
calf is really taking off, youcan maybe wean them a little earlier.
Not that we usually do, butI'm quite proud of our. Our calf
(43:53):
management on our farm, thatwould be one thing. And then showing
the kids.
Yep, very good. What's nextfor you and your family farm? And
what's next for you in sharingyour story online?
That's another good question.What's next for the family farm is
right now we do not have anyproject plan. At least that's what
(44:15):
I tell myself. My husbandwould tell you something different,
but there always seems to besomething on the list of something
to build or concrete to pour.If you want to know the ticket to
a farmer's heart, it isconcrete. You might think it was,
you know, gold or silver, butit's concrete. I've learned that.
(44:35):
So no specific goals on thefarm other than with the YouTube
channel we have and my socialmedia presence. I've had some really
interesting brands reach outto me in wanting to do some partnerships.
So that's kind of a segue intothe next question you had about what's
next for the social mediaportion of what I do. We're really
(44:59):
excited to try out some thingsthat we believe will benefit our
farm and I'm just hoping togrow and be able to reach more people,
whether that's encouraging oreducating and see where that takes
me.
All good things and I'mexcited to follow along and see where,
where it all takes you and tosee how much concrete you're gonna
(45:21):
pour in 2025. My last questionfor you, Lauren, is what is the most
rewarding part about being arural woman for you?
This ties back into what I'mmost proud of in that is raising
rural kids. I think they'relike we were talking about at the
beginning of the show here,how people raised and specifically
(45:46):
women raised in agriculturejust are resilient and have a different
way of looking at life. AndI'm really interested to see how
that plays out in my own kids.We have two girls and a boy. And
I was thinking yesterday wehave these giant snow piles on our
property and I was thinking Iused to have to walk three blocks
(46:07):
to the local Max Milk parkinglot to play on those snow piles that
my kids just get to walkoutside and play in their yard. And
I just see having not grown upon a farm, I see the blessings everywhere
that the kids get to have intheir day to day life. And the most
beautiful thing is that theyrecognize that they, they're thankful
for all the space they haveand they, they're constantly making
(46:30):
connections of things thatare. Is different about our life
than other people's. And, andthey usually have a pretty positive
spin on it. So that's nice to see.
I love that and I love thatthey have that positive outlook now
versus, you know, maybe whenthey're older and looking back and
recognizing it then it'salways great to have those key moments
(46:51):
now when they're little too.So that's awesome. Lauren, for the
folks who would like toconnect with you online, where can
they find you?
So we have a YouTube channel,it's called Dairy Farm Kind of Life.
So it's a spin off of the, youknow, the song Semi Charm kind of
life anyway on there. That'sour YouTube channel. And then also
(47:13):
that's just where I am onFacebook, Instagram and TikTok as
well.
Perfect. And I will link allof those in the show notes so people
can find you and connect with you.
Awesome. Thanks so much.
Thank you so much for sharingyour story with me today. I truly
appreciate it.
My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
(47:34):
Thanks for listening to theRural Woman Podcast. The Rural Woman
Podcast is more than just apodcast. We are a community. A huge
thank you to the Rural WomanPodcast Team. Audio Editor Max Hof
offer a special thanks to ourPatreon Executive Producers Sarah
Riedner from Happiness by theAcre to learn how you can become
(47:56):
a Patreon Executive Produceror other ways to financially support
the show. Head on over towildrosefarmer.com to learn more.
Be sure to hit the Follow orSubscribe button wherever you listen
to the podcast to get thelatest episodes directly on your
plate playlist. And if you areloving the show, please be sure to
(48:16):
leave a rating and review onApple Podcast or any other platform
that accepts ratings andreviews. You can connect with us
on social media, theWhirlwoman Podcast and with me, ildrosefarmer.
One of the best ways you cansupport the show is by sharing it.
Send this episode to a friendor share on your social media India.
(48:39):
Let's strengthen and amplifythe voices of women in agriculture
together. Until next time myfriend, keep sharing your story.
Hi, I'm Katelyn Duban and thisis the Rural Woman Podcast. I'm a
first generation farmer whomarried into agriculture. Born and
raised in a city, I was sounfamiliar with where my food came
from, but I was determined tofigure it out. Through my journey
into agriculture, I saw womenwho were strong but humble, often
(01:04):
taking a backseat. To me,these women were leaders who deserved
a seat at the table. I createdthe Rural Women Podcast to share
the voices of women in anindustry whose stories often went
untold. The ruralentrepreneurs who live and breathe
their work full of grit andpride. We come here to share our
(01:27):
stories, to be in communitywith each other, to be challenged
and inspired, but mostimportantly, family. To be celebrated
and to be heard. We may notall live farm, ranch or homestead
the same, but we are allconnected. We are rural women and
(01:47):
our stories are worthy ofbeing told. Hey everyone. Welcome
back to another episode of theRural Woman Podcast. Today you'll
meet Lauren Koster. Lauren isa dairy farmer, homeschooling mom
of three, and unintentionalfarm wife who found herself neck
(02:10):
deep in cows and chaos afterfalling in love with a dairy farmer
from southwestern Ontario.Lauren shares her candid journey
from never having set foot ona farm, to co managing a herd of
60 cows, raising kids withmuddy boots, and navigating the highs
and lows of rural life. Frombuilding a new dairy facility to
(02:32):
weathering the financialchallenges that come with it. Lauren
brings humor, honesty andheart to her story. Today we dig
into the unique role of womenin agriculture, the emotional weight
of navigating, onlinefeedback, and the magic of raising
your kids with dirt undertheir nails and the responsibility
in their hearts. Whether youare deep in the farming world or
(02:55):
just farm curious, thisconversation will remind you that
resilience and adaptabilityand sometimes a good sense of humor
can go a long way in thesometimes messy life in agriculture.
Without further ado, myfriends, let's get to this week's
episode with Lauren.
(03:19):
Lauren, welcome to the RealWoman podcast. How are you today?
Thanks, Katelyn. I am doingvery well, thank you.
I am so excited to dive intoyour story. I feel like there are
going to be quite a fewsimilarities between the two of us.
So it'll be just like twogirlfriends having a cup of coffee
today. So you make my job veryeasy. Awesome.
(03:41):
I'm looking forward to it.
For the listeners who areunfamiliar with you, Lauren, tell
us who you are, where you'refrom, and how you got your start
in agriculture.
So, my name is Lauren Koster.I'm from Southwestern Ontario, and
that is where we are currentlyfarming. My husband and I are dairy
farmers along with our threekids that are 4, 6, and 8. And I
(04:03):
always include them when I saythat we're dairy farmers, because
dairy farming truly is, atleast for us, a family affair. And
I was not born intoagriculture. I was raised close to
Toronto, but my husband and Iactually met in the Dominican on
holidays and we hit it off.And then now, 10 years later, we're
(04:29):
farming together. And, yeah,it's. It's a pretty fun life.
That's cool. A lot of timeswhen people tell me how they met
their husband and theirmillennials, ish. A lot of time people
are meeting them online, whichI very much met my husband on the
Internet. But meeting them onvacation I think is key because then,
(04:51):
you know, they value vacation.As a farmer, don't ask me how.
Many we've taken since itwould be kind of surprising on the
low end, right?
For sure. So growing up in thecity and near Toronto, obviously
a major urban center, I loveto ask women who didn't grow up this
(05:14):
way, what were some of yourfirst memories around food and where
food came from?
I find that question so hardto answer because I honestly don't
know. I just didn't thinkabout it. I didn't think about it
at all. Food was from thegrocery store. I remember my mom
planting a garden, and she'llsay now that she did it to educate
us, but all I remember is wehad this section in the back of our
(05:37):
yard and it was just full ofweeds all the time. I never actually
remember growing any sort offood to eat. I just remember that
square always being full ofweeds. So that would probably be
my mom's attempt at showing mewhere food came from. But I had never
even stepped foot on a dairyfarm, or come to think of it, any
farm that produced food otherthan probably apple picking or strawberry
(06:02):
picking before I met my now husband.
Yeah, that disconnect isdefinitely there for myself. Very
similar in not knowing a damnthing about where my food came from.
And regionally, like we arevery agriculture based in where I
am, there's farms everywhere,there's cows everywhere, but I didn't
(06:23):
know what people were doingwith those cows or how they ended
up at the grocery store. Sovery similar. But it is a very good
life lesson that your mom didteach you that weeds do grow when
you try and grow food. So allweeds, you know, eventually flower,
and some people value them asa flower that way. But most people
(06:45):
in production agriculture do not.
So I have learned that.
So what was your firstimpression when you visited your
husband's dairy farm? And howdid that kind of start to create
that perspective of farmingfor you?
My goodness. It was. It'sagain, hard to remember what I first
(07:06):
thought, but I just. Iremember the pungent odors of the
dairy farm and just thinking.My husband is also one of six siblings,
and I remember when I met himon holiday, like, I knew one family
that had five kids, and I justthought, like, oh, people still do
that. People still have thatmany kids. And when I, when he was
(07:28):
a farmer, like, I was justlearning all kinds of new things.
But when I stepped into thatdairy barn, I just, I was odd, in
awe of the facility. And thatwas a. A Thai stall burn built in
the 70s. But I rememberthinking it was extremely clean and
just being amazed by, youknow, seeing where our milk comes
(07:52):
from.
Right. The smell is alwayswhat's going to get anyone first.
Even, you know, when we. Inour area, it's called Feedlot Alley.
Like, there are a lot of cows.There are more cows in our area than
there are people. And thesmell always gets the city people
as soon as they come. I don'tsmell it anymore. The thing that
(08:14):
I smell outside is silage morethan I do manure.
That can also have a bad smell.
Exactly. I'm not a. It's notthe greatest smell for me, if I'm
being honest, but, yeah, depending.
On what stage of thefermentation process it is in.
Yeah, exactly. So youobviously fell in love with a farmer
(08:35):
and then got married and tellus what that journey was like in
really transitioning your lifeonto being on a farm.
Sure. So when I met myhusband, he actually wasn't a farmer.
He worked for a constructioncompany. And that was mainly because
he wanted to get somedifferent experiences to make sure
(08:57):
that farming is what he wantedto do. Also, I mentioned he's one
of six kids, so he has. He hadthree brothers who were also involved
on the farm. So at that point,it was just finding room for everybody
and finding a spot foreverybody. And then again, if that's
not what he really wanted todo, then that would eliminate finding
a spot. But obviously that iswhat he decided to do. And about
(09:22):
six months into our marriage,they restructured the family farm,
and my husband then startedworking there. So I remember when
we were dating and he kind ofsaid, or maybe we were engaged at
this point, and he kind ofsaid, so, like, I do want a dairy
farm, kind of. Are you in orare you out? But I really at that
point still I would help himmilk on weekends when he was working
(09:47):
on his family farm and Iwould, you know, help feed the feed
that they were not on a, anyfancy feeding system. So I would
be giving scoops of grain tothe different cows. But I didn't
really know what the wholelifestyle of dairy farming was. So
when he kind of gave me thatare you in or are you out? I was
like, yeah, I'm in. Likeyou've got me. And I guess in life
(10:08):
you never truly know whatyou're in for, but. So he worked
with his brother on theirfamily farm for, if I'm doing the
math right here, about sixyears before we branched out and
split up in a good way on ourown. So he would go at 4:30 in the
(10:29):
morning off to work and thenhe would come home for a fairly brief
lunch, especially in thesummer. In the winter it would be
longer, and then go back tohis family farm, which was 10 minutes
away, and then come homearound 7 or 8pm so at that time too,
I also found a job. I hadmoved to the area, obviously I mentioned
(10:51):
that I was from. I lived anhour and a half from where my husband
is. His family is where ourfirm is now. And I was just out of
school, so I was deciding do Iget a job? And I went to school for
social work. So do I go branchout into the cities and get a job
there? But I decided to get ajob closer to home at a caf research
(11:14):
facility because I thoughtthat would ultimately be a good investment
for my future to figure outhow to manage calves. So I worked
there and that turned intomany years I worked there. So that
was kind of my actual entrypoint into agriculture, was working
at this calf facility while myhusband was farming separately on
their family dairy farm. Thenthree kids later, I stopped working
(11:37):
at the calf research facilityand we started preparing for building
our own barn to have where wewere living. We moved on to one of
the family farms and that iswhere we built our current facility.
And that was two and a halfyears ago now. So we've been in our
new robotic milking barn fortwo and a half years.
(11:59):
Very cool. And I love what yousaid about kind of the lifestyle
piece and your husband sayinglike, are you in or are you out?
And I think that is somethingthat I feel a responsibility to,
as a city girl who marriedinto farming, have to talk about
(12:23):
because we don't understandwhat this lifestyle entails in full.
Right. Like helping out onWeekends or going for a romantic
combine ride every harvest.Right. Like those are the nice things
and those are the things thatdo happen. But there's so many pieces
behind the scenes that happen.So really explaining the full lifestyle
(12:45):
of the ups and the downs whenit comes to farming, I feel like
I have a responsibility totalk about those things. What are
your thoughts on that?
Do you mean a responsibilityto talk about them to women?
That would be gettinginvolved, I think getting involved.
And also women who have beenborn and raised in this industry
(13:06):
that might look at us like,why is this so hard for them to understand?
Right. Yes. So I, I woulddefinitely agree. And I also think
that if you really did layeverything out, if you laid out all
the points about, well, youcan't really RSVP for an event because
you don't know what theweather is going to be like. You
can say, you can respond to,to a wedding, but will to actually
(13:30):
come, you won't know until theday of. And just little things like
that for us. Robot calls inthe middle of the night. If I were
to sit down with a woman whowas in my situation 10 years ago
where whose husband said, areyou in or are you out? And laid all
those things out for her, Idon't know personally if I would
have said, if I would havechanged my answer. Because you can
(13:53):
spell all it out, but untilyou're living it, you really don't
know what it's actually like.
Yep.
But in terms of women who havebeen raised in agriculture, I think
that's amazing that they havehad these things ingrained into them
and it's part of theirlifestyle already. I've met a lot
(14:14):
of women who say that theywill never marry a dairy farmer or
never wanted to marry a dairyfarmer because they've grown up living
it. I've also met a lot ofpeople who have said that and are
now married to dairy farmers.So it's. I think it's really you,
you like the lifestyle or youdon't. And you either the all the
(14:36):
positives that you mentionedoutweigh the negatives or you just
get carried along the streamand it is what it is.
The cows need to be milked.Right. Like at the end of the day,
that's what needs to happen.So yeah, I just, I always find it
really interesting to havethese conversations and you know,
looking back, you know, yourhindsight is 2020 of the good, bad
(14:59):
and otherwise. And I think thething that I value the most about
people who grew up this way istheir ability to adapt to ever changing
circumstances. Farmers arereally obviously resilient people
and can adapt to mostsituations without a lot of hesitation.
(15:20):
They kind of just jump in withtheir boots on. And that's equality
that I've developed over theyears, but it's definitely been harder
for me.
Yes, I agree with that,wholeheartedly. Took the, the word
right out of my mouth therewith resiliency would definitely
be one of the main words Iwould use to describe farmers. Right,
yeah, they can, their mindscan work pretty uniquely.
(15:44):
Yes, absolutely. So talk to usabout, you know, the journey of building
a new facility. That is anundertaking that many have probably
thought about doing, butactually pulling the plug in doing
it, that's amazing. So take usthrough that journey in building
(16:06):
your own dairy operation andwhat that's looked like for you and
your family.
Sure. So it's a pretty complexstory. I'll try to keep it, you know,
brief. But we were actually onDairy Farmers of Ontario. I'm not
sure about different provincesin Canada and then obviously it's
really different in theStates, but Dairy Farmers of Ontario
has a program and it's changednow since we've utilized it, but
(16:27):
it's called the New Producerprogram. So it gives new producers
or people that want to getinto farming a chance to try or not
try, but get involved. And wewere on that wait list and I'm, I
don't remember the exactnumbers, but when we signed up for
it, right when my husbandEddie went back home and started
working on the, the home farm.And at that time it was a ten year
(16:50):
wait list. And then I think intotal we were on it for about six
years before we received thequota. And quota is rights to sell
milk. So we had a six yeartimeframe which it worked out perfectly
for timing for when we wereable to build a barn. Because in
the reason it went from 10years to 6 years is some people will
(17:13):
drop out. Sometimes timingdoesn't line up. Sometimes DFO is
ready to give the quota, butthe people don't have a barn built
or different variables likethat. So our time was approaching
and we started doing researchinto building a barn. My husband
doesn't really love cows, so alot of people that really love cows
(17:34):
and milking will say, I will.I would never go with milking robots
because I just love milkingthe cows so much. So that was definitely
a point that he was not sosure about at first. But he's also
a big numbers guy and when hewas deciding what type of barn he
wanted to build. He did a lotof research on cost of building.
(17:58):
I don't think you can build atie stall burn, which is when the
cows are tied up in individualstalls and get milked individually
installed. I don't thinkyou're able to build that type of
barn anymore. So it wasessentially a parlor where cows get
milked in groups or a robotbarn for us. And when you take the
cost of square footage thatyou need to build a parlor barn,
(18:21):
because the parlor takes upmore space than the robots. And then
you also need a holding areato put all the cows in before they
get milked, Whether it's allyour cows or groups of cows, you
need more square footage. Sowhen that was compared with the cost
of robots in the less squarefootage of the actual build, it made
sense to go with robots. Andthere are other reasons too, that
we chose robots. Like, wereally had a desire to be able to
(18:44):
do it kind of all byourselves, at least just start up.
So robots eliminate the needto hire labor to help with the milking.
And also, of course, theflexibility that robots offer in
just. It's. It's kind of theway of the future. And robots have
been out for many years now,so we feel the kinks have been worked
out and it was a good time tojump in. So building the barn was
(19:08):
a lot of fun for me. As a citygirl, One thing that I feel still
very overwhelmed with is allof the mass amounts of debt that
comes from farming. I wasraised, my dad was a salesman, so
I learned that you make money,you have some that you save, some
(19:29):
that you give, some that youspend, but farming is completely
different. So that's somethingI find very overwhelming and still
am, you know, struggling withthat on a basis as a whole. But it's
rewarding in so many ways, andit's really cool to have been able
to design a barn and buildexactly what we want. And we really
(19:54):
wouldn't change much about it.
I, as a person who has nevermilked a cow and has also never been
in a dairy barn, whenever Ihear producers talk about robots
milking cows, like, it always,like, blows my mind that they can
just go in and literally havenot much human contact in the whole
(20:16):
endeavor. And we get milk andcheese and all of the good stuff
that comes from that. So onething that you did mention was the
debt aspect of it. And when Ihear robots, I think of debt because
I don't think robots are veryinexpensive. For the new producer
(20:36):
program, is there mentorshiparound these pieces for you like
to kind of get you startedwith the back end of. Of the operation
as well.
I don't believe so. I don'tthink that we had anything like that.
No. I think it's justbasically like, they don't give you
the quota. You have to pay forit, but otherwise, if they don't,
(20:57):
if they don't set it aside fornew producers, then there's not really
a chance for people to getinto dairy because the amount of
quota that's available to buyeach month is very minimal. Just
I won't get into thelogistics, but you're not gonna buy,
you know, 0.1 kilograms ofquota. You can't even milk one cow.
(21:20):
So that's kind of how itworks. But they didn't. I don't believe
there's any sort of mentorship.
It's interesting to me, right,because when we're thinking about
quota and when we're thinkingabout getting into the dairy industry,
I would assume that mostpeople who are on this wait list
are coming from other dairyoperations or at least have worked
(21:41):
on a dairy operation priorversus, you know, some person from
the city just thinking, like,wouldn't it be fun to milk cows twice
a day every day?
Yes, I would assume so aswell. I get some messages on social
media like, how do I start upa dairy farm? And I always just respond
(22:02):
and say, well, have you, like,maybe start working on a dairy farm
if they don't already? It'sclear that they don't. And just to
get a feel for what itactually is, like, before you jump.
Absolutely. And I like thatyou brought up the social media piece
because something that youhave done and that you have worked
on is showcasing your farm foreveryone to see on social media.
(22:27):
So talk to me about how youstarted and why you started and what
you've been doing.
Okay, so the why I started isbecause when we were started up in
our. In our new barn and cowswere milking and things were going
better, I. I remember taking avideo of a little video tour and
(22:47):
sending it to a friend of mineout in Northern Ontario. And he had
kind of said, oh, you shouldstart a YouTube channel. Like, that
was a really good tour. Andthen Eddie. Eddie likes watching
farmers on YouTube. And whenhe's talking to other guys about
YouTube channels, then theywould always say, you should start
a YouTube channel. But myhusband Eddie, like, he knows less
(23:09):
than. It's kind of funnybecause we're robot farmers, but
when it comes to technology,like, the other day he asked me how
to Send an E transfer. So he,he doesn't, he would not know how
to edit a YouTube video. Butso that was kind of what sparked
the idea. And then also,having not been from a farm, whenever
my friends or family wouldcome to check it out, all of them
(23:30):
would just say like, I had noidea farming was like this. Whether
people think cows are stillmilked by hand or they just don't
think about it, or some peoplethink that barns are dark and dirty
and grungy and our barn is anew build. So it's high ceilings,
it's bright, it's airy,there's optimal ventilation. In the
(23:50):
summertime, the barn feelsnicer to be in than our un air conditioned
house. So just a combinationof that, that little spark. And then
friends of mine and familysaying they had no idea what dairy
farming was like. I thought,well, why don't we show people? However,
I learned fairly quickly I wasnot very active on social media personally
(24:14):
prior to that and I learnedvery quickly that social media, whether
it's YouTube, Instagram,Facebook, quickly learns what you
like and only shows you whatyou like. So like I said, I wasn't
active before and then once Istarted the farming channel, all
of a sudden all, all of thoseplatforms, all they would show me
is farming content. So Ilearned fairly quickly that at least
(24:39):
starting small, I'm actuallynot really reaching very many people
that are not, that are notinvolved in farming and don't have
much farming background. But Ihaven't let that discourage me yet.
And I'm seeing it as a way toconnect with other farmers and encourage
other farmers. And some peoplewill reach out to me and say like,
(25:01):
oh, I saw you do somethingthis way and I changed the way I
do it. It's way moreproductive. Or do you have tips on
this? Because I saw the waythat you have your tabs organized
and I really like how you dothat. Can you send me a picture of
your caf or I want to copy itand things like that. So that's very
motivational to provideencouragement to others involved
(25:23):
in it.
I think that it's sointeresting, it's completely valid,
the algorithms algorithm andyou get to see what you want to see
nine times out of ten and verymuch the same, like if you are interested
in dairy farming, you're goingto see dairy farmers. If you are
interested in growing a notill garden, you are going to get
(25:46):
all of those things. And Ithink for me anyways, like I look
at what I do and the audiencethat I hope to Reach and us sharing
our stories for me is a wayfor us us women in agriculture and
rural living to connect versustrying to convince somebody that
they should live rurally orthey should drink milk from a cow
(26:11):
versus an alternative becauseof whatever they thought of what
dairy farming looked like. I'mcurious if you have experienced maybe
any negative pushback fromfolks who maybe are from outside
of the egg industry and areagainst dairy in any way.
(26:33):
Yes, I definitely have andit's been a learning experience for
me fairly early on and I'veonly been doing this for less than
two years, but early on I wasposting kind of anything and in the
the debate back and forth onwhether to include my kids in on
social media or not is alwaysin my mind. But I've currently taken
(26:58):
the route of including them.Not all the time, but just they're
very much a part of my familyand truthfully they would be hurt
if I didn't include them. Itry to do it in a semi what I think
of as a safe way, but you canprobably see where this is going.
I posted a video of my son. Hehad said I wish we weren't farmers.
(27:19):
And so that's kind of how Ititled the video. And then he comes
out and I video him helping mefeed the calves. And then I say at
the end I could have just lethim say yeah, wallow in self pity,
but that wouldn't have let megive the opportunity for him to help
and say you're a really goodfarmer, bud. And that particular
(27:42):
video, all kinds of negativecomments about it. How I'm abusing
my children and abusing myanimals because we have our calves
and calf touches which youcan't even. There's no point in even
saying why you do things theway you do to comments like that.
They don't. They're not goingto listen. There's always just going
(28:03):
to be something that they'regoing to say back. But I learned
that if I'm going to includemy kids, I need to be very intentional
about how I do it becausethat's ultimately hurtful for my
kids when they grow up. And ifthey see that video, those comments,
especially in let's say teenyears, like that's very influential
for them. So I have hadpushback like that or different.
(28:25):
I'm trying to think ofsomething else. But one time, oh
again with my son, one time hewasn't feeling that good and I just
mean a sniffle like he wastired and I was pulling him around
in our calf feeding wagon andhe was bundled up in his snowsuit.
But like, so much backlashabout that, about how I should be
treating my child when he'ssick instead of doing things and
(28:48):
just accusing me of being anabusive parent and all these things.
And I am a very sensitiveperson, but surprisingly, am able
to let those things just flyover my head because you don't know
who's behind the comments. Andsometimes I just want to be like,
well, I don't go and tearapart what you do for a living. But
(29:09):
it is my choice to show onsocial media what we do, and it's
their choice how they take it.And I've connected with some other
people on social media. One.One thing that stood out to me when
talking about negativecomments was a wife of a man who
has a YouTube channel saidthat when they get negative comments,
they bless the person and thenmove on. And I thought, oh, that's
(29:32):
a really nice way to handle that.
And while you were sayingthis, like, I. I'm no stranger to
a negative comment or two inmy time, but honestly, when I think
of it and when I think of thetypes of videos, you know, that you
are posting and just sharingwhat you do in your everyday life,
as a person who grew up in thecity and if I didn't know anything
(29:55):
about agriculture, I couldpotentially look at these videos
that way. Right? Because Idon't understand. I don't understand
the back part of it. And ifthey were willing to be open to learn,
they would and look and seewhy you do the things the way you
do. Right. And if they're notinterested, they're not interested.
Right. And that's. That'sokay. I'm not interested in probably
(30:16):
95% of their careers or whythey do what they do. Right. But
it is what it is. Andhonestly, I think the advocacy part
and the education piece is soimportant in our industry. And for
the folks who are willing toput their hand up saying, like, I
am tribute to showing you whatwe do on our farm to help share our
(30:39):
stories, I. I commend you fordoing that and doing it on YouTube.
It is. I started a podcast soI didn't have to be on a camera or
in public, and that reallybackfired on me six years later.
But, like, I just. I want tocommend you for sharing your story
and sharing what your familydoes on your operation, because it
(31:01):
is hard and it's unfortunatethat we have to have as thick of
skin as we do, because we'restill human and our feelings can
still get hurt. But puttingyour hand up and saying, like, I
will show you what we do inorder to really progress our industry.
I have a lot of respect forthat. So thank you for doing it.
(31:21):
Thank you.
(32:10):
I want to talk about a piecethat we kind of chatted about before
we hit record, and that was awoman in agriculture and finding
really what your place andyour role is on individual operations
and really in the industry asa whole. Talk to me about the progression
of you really becoming a partof your operation with your family
(32:33):
and with your kiddos andincluding them in that.
Right. So, as I said, my kidswere already alive when we started
farming on our own. And Ididn't get very involved with the
family farm when my husbandwas working there. Just thought it
was best not to. But before wehad kids and as we were kind of,
you know, planning life andhow things would go, the dream was,
(32:55):
you know, at that point, tobecome a dairy farming team. And
I had all these ideas of whatthat would look like and how involved
I would be and what I would beable to do. And then I had kids,
and that all changed. Andalso, again, this was kind of a more
fantasy because we weren'tactually living yet. I didn't actually
get to practice those dreamsbefore having kids. And then the
(33:17):
kids kind of became the dream.But it definitely looks different
than even I would like it tosome days. But it's very rewarding,
I think, to be able to beinvolved with my husband. And I have
certain things I manage on thefarm. I manage our calf program.
That doesn't mean I feed thecalves. Every single calf feeding.
(33:40):
My husband also does some ofthat too. But I do it enough that
I'm able to manage it. I knowhow to do all of the main barn chores.
I, last summer learned how todrive a tractor. I did it once because
my husband just says I wouldbe way too slow. I may as well just
do the barn tours so that hecan be out in the fields, the tractor
(34:01):
work, because that's the phasewe're in right now. And if I did
the tractor work, I would havethree kids in the cab with me and
probably not be able to focusvery well on what I'm doing. So it
just works better for him todo the field work and me to be in
the barn with the cows and thekids. Some days I wish I was involved
more. Some days I wish that Icould, you know, be in the skid steer
helping clean out barns. Andthat would give my husband opportunities
(34:23):
to do other things. But I alsohomeschool our three kids, so I just
don't have enough time in aday to do everything. And I just
think our kids are young now.And then when they are grown, then
maybe it will be my time to domore in the barn and to help out
with more. I know it's a barn,but I still wish our barn could be
cleaner. The cows will poopeverywhere. So I wish I could be
(34:47):
more involved with keepingthings cleaner and with the cows
and things like that. But thatday may come. And each. I've spoken
to many different femalefarmers, or I like to call women
that are involved in farmfemale farmers rather than farm wives,
(35:07):
because I just think thattitle is. Conveys more responsibility,
which is more of a reflectionof what their life probably actually
is. So female farmers, I'vetalked to a lot of different female
farmers and we all havedifferent ways of doing things. And
some farms are generationalfarms where there's brothers and
(35:28):
sisters and moms and dadsthere and sometimes aunts and uncles
helping in there to help withthe kids and help with the farm work.
And everybody either has theirown individual roles or they share
roles. And some farms are morelike ours, where it's just us and
I don't have family close byto take care of, kids to be out on
(35:48):
the farm, which I'm notcomplaining, that's totally fine.
That's the way we do it and itworks. And farming, like I said for
us as a family affair, we'reoften all out there together. And
I love that for our kids. Notevery day, because I don't want to
paint a perfect picture foryou. There's definitely a lot of
tears and throwing hands upand all those things that go along
(36:11):
with it. But I'm kind oflosing my train of thought here with
your initial question.
Thank you for sharing all ofthat. And I think we chatted about
just the different phases oflife. And you mentioned it too, before
having kids, you have thefantasy of husband and wife team.
And we're going to bring allof these kids along and they're gonna,
(36:32):
you know, eventually run askid steer themselves and like all
of these things, but it takesa lot of work to get there. And I
actually had a conversationwith a friend now. I will. I will
say she's my friend now. I'mactually more friends with her mom.
But we were chatting and shehad mentioned something to me about
(36:53):
how she can't wait until herkids are older so she can be a real
farmer. And I was like, whatdo you mean, a real farmer? And she's
like, well, you know, when Irun the combine, I have three kids
in here and all of thesethings. I'm like, I'm sorry. I think
that makes you more of a realfarmer because you can run, right?
This piece of equipment withchildren crawling all over you and
(37:13):
still bring a crop in. So,like, to me, you're the ultimate
real farmer, Right?
Yeah. That's amazing. I lookat. I look at women. Sorry, I look
at women driving tractors withkids in the cab and combines and
all that. And, like, to me,that's amazing. I cannot imagine
that.
Right. And it's just all like,it's all relative. Right. And I think
(37:36):
I love social media forbringing us all together, but I think
specifically as women,sometimes we can be really mean to
each other, but more or lesswe're mean to ourselves because we
see people doing those thingsand we think, well, I could never
do that. Or I've tried to dothis, and it's, you know, it doesn't
work for me. That's fine,that's fair. That's valid. My nephew,
(38:00):
at one point, I was operatingthe grain cart and I told him, don't
press any buttons. And he did.And it was like, what do I do? Right?
So, like, there's pros andcons to all of these things. But
the point I want to make hereis, I think as women in agriculture,
we. We have to find our valuein which phase we're in, because
(38:24):
all of our phases of whetherthat's, you know, as a new young
farmer, a newlywed, or if youare having children or you're in
your children phase, if youare in your public speaking podcast
phase, and you don't have timeto do all of the things that you
wish you could do, that'sokay. You still have value to your
(38:46):
operation. Right? And I thinkwe forget that really easily. And
then we can feel like we'renot doing enough, when in reality,
we're right alongside ourpartners. We are helping the operation
in the way that we can, in theway that we know how. And I think
when we know better, we dobetter. And when we get to experience
(39:08):
things, I think that's whenwe're going to learn to see where
we fit in our operations andto see where we fit in, you know,
agriculture as a whole.
Yeah, you're totally right.You're totally right. My husband
and I say remind each otherall the time that you can do everything,
but you can't do everythingwell. And he's constantly reminding
(39:28):
me of, which is so nice ofhim, but of the value I bring to
the farm. Even if I haven'tstepped foot in the barn for a week,
he'll remind me of all thethings that I'm doing to keep him
afloat and to keep the familyafloat in. And that's really helpful
for me when I get in my headand I see, you know, like you said,
all the other people doingeverything else and I'm doing nothing.
(39:48):
Like that's, you know, my mind.
Right.
But yeah, sometimes thereisn't a definition for your role
in the farm and you just getthrough it and you're just, you just
show up and you do it or maybeyou're not showing up and that's
your current role. Like yousaid, there's different phases for
everything and it's going tolook different. You can't necessarily
(40:09):
have that all mapped outbecause you, you just don't know,
right?
You don't know until ithappens. And like we had said before,
I can picture a really goodfantasy of what I think it should
look like. And in reality itcan be the exact opposite of what
I've laid out. So I want toask you, as you know, a first generation
(40:33):
farmer yourself, what messagesdo you have for young Lauren? If
you could go back and tellyoung Lauren one thing about entering
or considering entering adifferent role in agriculture or
role in general inagriculture, what words of encouragement
(40:53):
do you have?
So we didn't plan this, but Ithink the first thing that came to
my mind is to stay positive.Because with farming it's so easy
to get wrapped up in and allthe things that have gone wrong and
all the things that you'remissing out on and all the things
that, you know, grass isgreener on the other side. But if
you stay positive, and I wouldhave told myself back then to keep
(41:16):
a gratitude journal and everyday just write one thing that I was
grateful for and to be able tolook back on that and see all the
blessings that have happenedover the years. That is what I would
tell a young version ofmyself. And that is what I have to
keep reminding myself becauseit's not always easy and that doesn't
always come first nature. Andit just realistically, like it's
(41:38):
not always positive. So likenothing is. But you have to work
to remember the good thingsabout what you're doing day to day.
And I love what you said, it'sreally easy to find the negative,
especially when there are somany things outside of your control.
But if you could focus on whatis in your control. And gratitude
(42:00):
is something that we all haveor that we should all have. Probably
pretty easy to find at leastone good thing that happened to you
in a day, even if you had areally, really bad day.
I've. I've been able to, inthe days I've been practicing that.
There's usually when you sitdown and think of it, there's quite
(42:22):
a few things that you canactually write down.
Yeah, for sure. You hadmentioned, you know, having a partner
who really shares with you thevalue that you bring to your operation,
which I have to tell you, is a treasure.
Yeah.
In farming partnerships and inpartnerships in general, I think
that's a really easy thing toforget. But I want to turn that back
(42:46):
on you. What are you mostproud of? Of the things that you
do for your farm and the valuethat you bring to the farm.
Okay, wow. That's anotherpoint I didn't. I'm not prepared
for, but I guess I'm proud ofshowing my kids that even when I
don't want to do something,I'm showing up and doing it. Any
mother can really portray thatto their kids. You don't have to
(43:08):
be a farmer, but that'sprobably one thing I take pride in,
is showing them theresponsibility of taking care of
animals. And I'm reallygrateful that I had the experience
at that calf research facilityto develop great protocols for our
farm. And it's really fun tobe able to work with individual calves
(43:31):
that are ours instead oftreating all calves as equals. Because
when you're doing research,that's what needs to be done. But
it's really. I really enjoybeing able to. If one. If one calf
is growing slower, you cankeep them on milk longer. If one
calf is really taking off, youcan maybe wean them a little earlier.
Not that we usually do, butI'm quite proud of our. Our calf
(43:53):
management on our farm, thatwould be one thing. And then showing
the kids.
Yep, very good. What's nextfor you and your family farm? And
what's next for you in sharingyour story online?
That's another good question.What's next for the family farm is
right now we do not have anyproject plan. At least that's what
(44:15):
I tell myself. My husbandwould tell you something different,
but there always seems to besomething on the list of something
to build or concrete to pour.If you want to know the ticket to
a farmer's heart, it isconcrete. You might think it was,
you know, gold or silver, butit's concrete. I've learned that.
(44:35):
So no specific goals on thefarm other than with the YouTube
channel we have and my socialmedia presence. I've had some really
interesting brands reach outto me in wanting to do some partnerships.
So that's kind of a segue intothe next question you had about what's
next for the social mediaportion of what I do. We're really
(44:59):
excited to try out some thingsthat we believe will benefit our
farm and I'm just hoping togrow and be able to reach more people,
whether that's encouraging oreducating and see where that takes
me.
All good things and I'mexcited to follow along and see where,
where it all takes you and tosee how much concrete you're gonna
(45:21):
pour in 2025. My last questionfor you, Lauren, is what is the most
rewarding part about being arural woman for you?
This ties back into what I'mmost proud of in that is raising
rural kids. I think they'relike we were talking about at the
beginning of the show here,how people raised and specifically
(45:46):
women raised in agriculturejust are resilient and have a different
way of looking at life. AndI'm really interested to see how
that plays out in my own kids.We have two girls and a boy. And
I was thinking yesterday wehave these giant snow piles on our
property and I was thinking Iused to have to walk three blocks
(46:07):
to the local Max Milk parkinglot to play on those snow piles that
my kids just get to walkoutside and play in their yard. And
I just see having not grown upon a farm, I see the blessings everywhere
that the kids get to have intheir day to day life. And the most
beautiful thing is that theyrecognize that they, they're thankful
for all the space they haveand they, they're constantly making
(46:30):
connections of things thatare. Is different about our life
than other people's. And, andthey usually have a pretty positive
spin on it. So that's nice to see.
I love that and I love thatthey have that positive outlook now
versus, you know, maybe whenthey're older and looking back and
recognizing it then it'salways great to have those key moments
(46:51):
now when they're little too.So that's awesome. Lauren, for the
folks who would like toconnect with you online, where can
they find you?
So we have a YouTube channel,it's called Dairy Farm Kind of Life.
So it's a spin off of the, youknow, the song Semi Charm kind of
life anyway on there. That'sour YouTube channel. And then also
(47:13):
that's just where I am onFacebook, Instagram and TikTok as
well.
Perfect. And I will link allof those in the show notes so people
can find you and connect with you.
Awesome. Thanks so much.
Thank you so much for sharingyour story with me today. I truly
appreciate it.
My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
(47:34):
Thanks for listening to theRural Woman Podcast. The Rural Woman
Podcast is more than just apodcast. We are a community. A huge
thank you to the Rural WomanPodcast Team. Audio Editor Max Hof
offer a special thanks to ourPatreon Executive Producers Sarah
Riedner from Happiness by theAcre to learn how you can become
(47:56):
a Patreon Executive Produceror other ways to financially support
the show. Head on over towildrosefarmer.com to learn more.
Be sure to hit the Follow orSubscribe button wherever you listen
to the podcast to get thelatest episodes directly on your
plate playlist. And if you areloving the show, please be sure to
(48:16):
leave a rating and review onApple Podcast or any other platform
that accepts ratings andreviews. You can connect with us
on social media, theWhirlwoman Podcast and with me, ildrosefarmer.
One of the best ways you cansupport the show is by sharing it.
Send this episode to a friendor share on your social media India.
(48:39):
Let's strengthen and amplifythe voices of women in agriculture
together. Until next time myfriend, keep sharing your story.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com